Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are aircraft which do not have an onboard pilot. They can be used in a number of military/non-military roles, such as reconnaissance and ground surveillance for mapping, traffic monitoring, science, and geological survey. In addition, UAVs can be used for border surveillance, fishery patrols or the prevention of smuggling and illegal migration.
There are numerous unmanned vehicle systems and unmanned air vehicles currently in use. For example, one type of design comprises a conventional type of aircraft having a propulsion device, such as a fan unit, and a plurality of flight surfaces, such as wings, extending outwardly therefrom. Such unmanned systems generally require a long take off or landing strip making them unable to take-off or land in tight or confined spaces. Additionally such aircraft must circle to maintain position over a target of interest. This makes these aircraft unsuitable for use in urban areas where the availability of take-off and landing strips of sufficient length and clearances are not available.
Conventional UAVs are typically manually controlled by an operator who may view aspects of a UAV's flight using cameras installed on the UAV with images provided through downlink telemetry. Navigating such UAVs from a starting position to one or more waypoints requires an operator to have specific knowledge of the UAV's flight, including such aspects as starting location, the UAV's current location, waypoint locations, and so on. Operators of known UAVs usually are required to manually control the UAV from a starting position to a waypoint with little aid from automation.
There is therefore an ongoing need for improvement in the area of UAV navigations.